"Starting a novel is opening a door on a misty landscape; you can still see very little but you can smell the earth and feel the wind blowing." - Under the Net by Iris Murdoch

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Frederica by Georgette Heyer

This is the second book I have read by Heyer, and I have to say that I enjoyed it much more than The Convenient Marriage. I'm glad I gave Heyer another try. This novel was written much later, in 1965, and takes place in the Regency Era.Frederica is a young lady who has been taking care of her family ever since her mother died when she was young. She has four younger siblings that she looks after, and now that her younger sister is coming of age, she wants her to be able to experience coming-out in London. In order to help her accomplish this, she contacts a distant relation who she has never met, Lord Alverstoke, and asks for his help. Alverstoke is a confirmed bachelor who is bored by his life, and ends up taking on the challenge mainly to irritate his sister. He succeeds in both launching the Merrivilles into society and causing strife in his family, all of which amuses him. But he had not counted on actually beginning to care for Frederica or her younger brothers, and he must reevaluate much of his life as a result.I just loved most of the main characters in this book, which was the main problem for me with The Convenient Marriage. Even though the Earl of Rule and Lord Alverstoke share many characteristics, Heyer made me actually like Alverstoke. And Frederica and her two younger brothers, Jessamy and Felix, are just fantastic characters. The social humor is very similar to The Convenient Marriage, and as in that book, the romance does not get resolved until the very final pages of the book. But it was well worth the wait, and a treat of a book in general.

my book reviews

Update!! I am now blogging at my new website Work From Home Star! I have two blogs there - one for book reviews, and one about being at work-at-home mom. Check them out!!This blog is an effort to keep track of all the reading I do, and it gives me a place to practice reviewing books. I read a few books a week, usually, so it is difficult to look back and remember books sometimes. And I hope that my reviews may be helpful to anyone else who reads them. I would also love to discuss books through my posts. So if you have a comment, please leave it and we can discuss!!My favorite thing to read is fantasy, so there tends to be a lot of that on here, but I do read quite a bit of general fiction and non-fiction as well. I also enjoy reading teen and children's fiction.I have officially announced the reason I have had difficulty posting recently - I am pregnant!! So I will not be focusing on challenges, and I am behind on my reviews. But I still will try to post, and I may get caught up one day.